So, this is part three of my multiyear plot to have players clear all of the Emerald Spire! Last year, two groups of players using regenerated characters managed to clear levels 1 & 2! They made an assault on Level 3 but failed to clear it, so that's where the group playing Part 3 will start! So who knows, you may have to make yet another run on level 3, or move on to level 4, or even get to try your hand at level 5!

I'll have the pregenerated characters representing a wide range of classes and heroes, miniatures tied to the pregens, dice, pencils, and so on. You can bring your own dice if you want, but you are stuck with my character builds.

Decisions made by players last time impact your resources this time, and things you do this time can impact character options for years to come!

So join me for a few hours, as we see how far you can make it through the Emerald Spire Superdungeon!

So, this is part three of my multiyear plot to have players clear all of the Emerald Spire! Last year, two groups of players using regenerated characters managed to clear levels 1 & 2! They made an assault on Level 3 but failed to clear it, so you get to try again!

I'll have the pregenerated characters representing a wide range of classes and heroes, miniatures tied to the pregens, dice, pencils, and so on. You can bring your own dice if you want, but you are stuck with my character builds.

Decisions made by players last time impact your resources this time, and things you do this time can impact character options for years to come!

So join me for a few hours, as we see how far you can make it through the Emerald Spire Superdungeon!

Last night I went over my notes for the final four entries of the 2015 RPG Superstar contest, compiled them, edited them, and posted them. And when I did, I realized that was the last time I'll be doing that at least for quite a while.

I have always followed RPG Superstar, and mentioned it regularly in my social media posts, but I'd never been part of it before. Then I was suddenly a Paizo employee, and Sean K Reynolds (the very able host who ran it so often before), was gone. I talked to a number of folks internally about the contest before I eventually volunteered to run it, but the enthusiasm I have always felt for this opportunity for new folks to break in convinced me to throw my hat in the ring, and I have yet to regret doing so.

Certainly I've made some mistakes along the way. I think more blog posts and press releases are called for, and next year I really want whoever runs it to warn people a month or so ahead of time what date the contest will begin. There was an issue with the resolution of the map round we should (and will) fix if we do it again. And there are tons of feedback on issues where I'm not positive we'll change what we're doing, but I know we'll be discussing it.

There are also things I am entirely convinced were good ideas. Changing round 1 clearly brought in a lot of people who have never entered before, and that's the ultimate reward for any early round change. The discussion about what cartographers do and what it takes to produce a good map sketch is enough to justify having a map round of some kind all by itself, however we may or may not tweak the exact rules for it. And a number of first-time judges really stepped up their participation in ways that made me glad I invited them.

And, of course, fan participation has been great. The community is fun, helpful, and friendly, which is amazing and gratifying.

We’ve had some comments on legibility of smaller type on the maps, and the contestants are (by the rules of the contest), not allowed to clarify anything, so I want to make a general statement about maps and resolution.

When we required all contestants to present maps at a specific dpi and size, we did so because in past years we’ve had some issues with maps (for the encounter round) being sent to us in different sizes, resolutions, and dpi, making it difficult to give them all a high-quality presentation for the contest. We found that asking for a higher dpi than we’ll use in the end allowed us to create a standard of presentation that kept all images crisp and clean. For encounter-round maps, this has worked well.

Unfortunately, since this round requires all text be provided on the maps themselves, many contestants used the dpi and size standards we required as the basis for making sure their text is clear, and otherwise tried to keep words as small as possible so as to not clutter their maps. This was done in the (reasonable) belief that the maps should look good at the size we asked for, rather than in any different size we might present on our website. When resized for smaller, high-quality images, this can result in words that aren’t clearly legible.

We’ve made a change to rescale everything to the higher end of maximum image size for uploaded images for all maps that were entered this round. This should allow for better legibility for voters when selecting their favorite maps to advance in the contest. It is our fault that this process was not properly communicated to our contestants, so consider this when adjusting or finalizing your selections.

Obviously, we’ll explain what is going to happen to the images of maps, and how to allow for it, more clearly in future rounds (and future contests). My apologies to any contestant with a map that has suffered as a result of how we handled scaling in this round.

As a result of a disqualification, a new map has been entered in Round 2. Because the timeframe on voting is getting tight, I'd ask everyone who has already voted to take a moment to consider The Sunken City of Justnoque, and decide if it's inclusion calls for a change in your vote.

This is the map of the first alternate, Allana Sliwinski, who won that position with the round 1 entry of the Harlequin's Hurlbat. It takes considerable drive to complete a Superstar challenge as an alternate, since you know there is only an outside chance anyone will get to see your work, and I congratulate Allana Sliwinski on being ready for this moment.

So, all the submissions for round 1 of RPG Superstar 2015 that are going to get considered are now in! Here’s some next steps.
1. STILL DON’T TALK ABOUT YOUR ITEM. Wait until the Top 32 are announced, on January 20th.
2. Look for the early voting to begin. That’ll be this Thursday!
3. Make a map! No, we don’t have the rules posted for that yet, and you likely won’t be making a map you’ll submit. But the experience is good for you! Look at what was turned over for various “Encounter” rounds in previous years, and use those as your guides for now.
4. Feel free to talk about the experience in GENERIC terms, and keep the community going. You don’t want to risk revealing your item or DQing yourself, but you could certainly share items you didn’t submit and your thoughts on the new format.
5. Enjoy the holidays!

As we near the last 24 hours of the submissions process (ending TOMORROW, 2pm PST)I want to reach out to contestants and people preparing to be contestants for a moment, and say: thanks.

Thanks for coming onto the boards and creating a helpful, encouraging community for everyone to enjoy and learn from.
Thanks for applying your creativity to the benefit of this game I love.
Thanks for not murdering me in my sleep for invalidating the wondrous item you had ready-to-go. :)

And, most of all, thanks for having the courage to release your creation into the wild to see if it survives. Although I've never been eligible for Superstar, I know what it's like to put your favorite ideas up for scrutiny. It's not easy. It takes courage and conviction, and I'm constantly impressed by how professionally Paizo fans treat this event.

Coming April 1st. Seriously.
But you shouldn't buy it... these are too unbalanced to be of any use to anyone.
Requires both Mythic Adventures and the Genius Guide to Horrifically Overpowered Feats for use.
Which is fine, because you shouldn't use this book anyway.

So, in the APG, the Crossbow combat style for rangers lists Crossbow Mastery and Focused Shot feats as options.

The descriptions of those feats mentions they are also options for the archery combat style.

If true, that means the archery style has more feat options than any other style, and can be used to master a crossbow, even though there is a separate crossbow combat style that offers rapid reload... which you don't necessarily need if you take Crossbow Mastery (which, as a ranger, you can take as a combat style without meeting its prerequisites, although you may still want Rapid Reload to avoid taking AoOs from reloading).

And Crossbow combat style gives you Deadly Aim, while Archery does not.

So an archer might prefer Crossbow combat style for Deadly Aim (since Far Shot is the similar option for archery style, and doesn't come up as often), while a crossbow user might prefer the Archery combat style since it gets him Rapid Shot and he can still take Crossbow Mastery.

So, I know there are people who are trepidatious about giving a new 3pp a try, especially when they are most interested in some of our bigger (and thus pricier) pdfs. So I just wanted to let everyone know we're having a GM's Day sale from now to March 11th, with all our pdfs here at Paizo 35% off!

While we are on the subject of GMs: What kinds of thigns would you fine GM-ing folks like to see as GM-oriented resources?

Anyone who answers that here and who
1. Shoots me a message to owen@roguegenisugames.com telling me what you said on this thread and:
2. Tells me what pdf from RGG they would like a free copy off:

Hey folks, this is me with my Green Ronin Developer hat on. I'm considering taking sections of 3.0/3.5 era GR products and updating them to Pathfinder, specifically to release as pdfs. I want to work on updating the back stock in magazine-article-sized slices, and see how they are received, and not undertake a huge process to do it.
So... what independent bit of ogl stuff from GR's backlist, that takes up no more than 8-16 pages, would folks most like to see updated?

Rogue Genius Games' very first M&M product is now available! 50 pages of animals, angels, aberrations and other threats from M&M superfan Jacob Blackmon (who also illustrates the book)! The first volume of the Super Powered Bestiary covers a list of monstrosities from Aboleth to Cyclops.

While obviously useful for M&M fantasy adventure games, having a long list of fully-statted out creatures is also useful for tradional supers games. whether an amazon princess is facing ancient Greek threats, the Crime Zoo is pulling heists all over Gothic City, or Captain Atlantis is facing ancient horrors from beneath the waves, every GM can make use of the stat blocks and illustrations of the Super Powered Bestiary (volume one).

Mythic Options: Mythic Rogue Class Features is available now!
While Mythic Adventures has numerous mythic spells and a long list of mythic feats (and even more are available in Mythic Options: The Missing Core Feats), none of the rogue’s class features have mythic upgrades available. There are trickster path abilities that tie into some rogue abilities or common skills, but no upgrades for the rogue’s main abilities and talents themselves.

This is unfortunate, because many rogue characters focus much more on their core abilities and talents than on feats. Mythic Options: Mythic Rogue Class Features offers mythic upgrades for every rogue class feature and talent from the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook. It allows rogue characters to focus on classic rogue abilities such as uncanny dodge, skill mastery, and trap spotter, or select just a few such abilities to upgrade while adding the normal options of mythic feats and path abilities.

This book fills in he gaps in Mythic version of feats from the core rulebook. Every single feat in the core rulebook that doesn't already have a mythic option is given one! Mythic critical feats, mythic metamagic, and even mythic proficiencies are fully covered along with every other missing mythic feat from the core rulebook.

Right now, we're funded for a full-color print book with new cover, new interior art, and 16 more pages of new templates. We have just 24 hours to add one more batch of 16 pages, for EVEN MORE new templates.

So, even if you've pledged, or can't afford it, help us get the word out!

And after that, come post your favorite idea for making new monsters with the old templates, or what new template you've always wanted to see!

From November 2009 through October 2013. Super Genius Games successfully released a new product a week, every week without fail, for 4 years. At the end of each year, they held a 52% off "52 in 52" sale to thank their fans.

While SGG managed to finish a forth full year of weekly releases this year before taking a break, it didn't have a chance to hold that sale. Since a large percentage of Super Genius's products and staff are now part of Rogue Genius Games, over the past few weeks a lot of people have asked me about that missing sale.

So now, to honor our heritage and to celebrate an unbroken year of releases one final time, we're having a 52% off sale of our ENTIRE back catalog of SGG products. More than 200 pdfs at more than half off, from Nov. 19th through Dec 1st!

What Super Genius Games accomplished was amazing, and Rogue Genius Games has no aspirations to repeat it anytime soon. So please come celebrate with us as we have the VERY LAST 52% off for 52 in 52 Sale!

From November 2009 through October 2013. Super Genius Games successfully released a new product a week, every week without fail, for 4 years. At the end of each year, they held a 52% off "52 in 52" sale to thank their fans.

While SGG managed to finish a forth full year of weekly releases this year before taking a break, it didn't have a chance to hold that sale. Since a large percentage of Super Genius's products and staff are now part of Rogue Genius Games, over the past few weeks a lot of people have asked me about that missing sale.

So now, to honor our heritage and to celebrate an unbroken year of releases one final time, we're having a 52% off sale of our ENTIRE back catalog of SGG products. More than 200 pdfs at more than half off, from Nov. 19th through Dec 1st!

What Super Genius Games accomplished was amazing, and Rogue Genius Games has no aspirations to repeat it anytime soon. So please come celebrate with us as we have the VERY LAST 52% off for 52 in 52 Sale!

So, our Advanced Bestiary has funded and we're working on the stretch goals. There's lots of great stuff (new content, new cover, new interior art) we can do if we get the support. That'll make the project better for everyone, so we could really use your help getting the word out!

But there's already an issue I want your opinions on, as Pathfinder fans. Five of the Advanced Bestiary's original templates (Broken Soul, Devil-Bound, Divine Guardian, Fungal Creature, Nightmare Creature) have been updated by Paizo and included in Bestiary 4.

So, we have three choices on how to handle that as we update Adv. Bestiary:

1. Include the templates sticking to the same updated stats as Paizo. Since we are offering people an updated version of the Advanced Bestiary, and not everyone is going to have Bestiary 4, this allows us to make sure everyone who wants all the templates we originally created in an updated format gets them, and that there aren't two versions of the same template. But it also means that for people that do have both books, there's about 5 pages of overlap in content.

2. Include the templates, but do our own conversion. Upside: Adv Bestiary is complete and there's new content. Downside, there are two versions of the same templates.

3. Ignore the templates that have already been updated in Bestiary 4, and create brand-new templates. Upside: everyone who has both books gets all new material. Downside: people who want all the Advanced Bestiary material updated have to look in 2 places for it, and those who don't have Bestiary 4 miss out on 5 templates.

I have always believed on of the reasons I have has success as a Pathfinder writer and developer is that I listen to the fans so:

I am thrilled to announce that game industry veteran Stan! and well-known developer/editor/writer Christina Stiles are joining me as I form my new venture, Rogue Genius Games!

Stan!'s experience with the RPG industry significantly predates my own, and includes working as a graphic designer and line editor for West End Games; an editor and game designer for TSR, Inc.; an author, senior game designer, and creative director for Wizards of the Coast, Inc.; and the creative content manager at Upper Deck Entertainment.

Of course he was also Creative Vice President for The Game Mechanics, Inc. and co-founder (with R. Hyrum Savage) of Super Genius Games where he and I worked together for the past four years. I’m happy he’s agreed to come on board Rogue Genius Games as Creative Director.

Christina Stiles’ name appears in a number of award-winning RPG products, including serving as editor for the Origins-winning Black Sails Over Freeport, and adventure and other writing contributions to Ennie-winning Streets of Zobeck by Kobold Press. She’s been involved in many, many more excellent rpg products, including serving as lead designer for Journeys to the West, also for Kobold Press. She comes on board Rogue Genius as our Senior Developer, and already has a slate of projects in the works!

Please welcome Stan! and Christina aboard! We are delighted to have them in our lab here at Rogue Genius Games!

So as of today I am no longer a member of Super Genius Games. The company and I had ceased to be a good fit, so we can to a mutually satisfactory agreement that has me no longer being a member of the Super Genius Entertainment LLC, and no longer the lead developer of Super Genius Games. I sincerely wish SGG good fortune in all its future endeavors, and I am very proud of the work I did while part of it.

A lot of that work is going to come with me in my new venture, Rogue Genius Games, which I am in the process of spinning up. I have also brought Warlords of the Apocalypse with me, and thus those of you with preorders are now my customers rather than SGG's.

To be clear this has nothing to do with my joining Green Ronin (though the timing is a heck of a coincidence), and I have every intention of continuing my work on things like the Godlings, Time Thief, and Talented product lines. Though it's going to take a little time to get my feet back under me. (I'll also need to get my tagline in these forums changed.... maybe "Developer Green Ronin, Rogue Genius Games").

I am sure more questions will come as we move forward, and I'll have a lot more to talk about when the ink is a little dryer.

I was asked by a patron what Super Genius Games classes I would recommend to replace the existing Paizo base and core classes. The answer got lengthy, so I decided to include it here in case anyone else was interested in that idea.

*Alchemist: I don’t want to suggest a replacement for the alchemist, but I DO want to suggest a way to make the class feel very different with SGG products – specifically Advanced Options: Alchemists’ Discoveries. That’s because in addition to the standard “more discoveries” material, it includes two alternate forms of alchemy – spagyric devices and metamorphosis – that can replace mutagens, or extracts, or bombs. Spagyric devices are essentially “DaVinci Punk” age-of-enlightenment mad scientist creations, and metamorphosis is an in-and-out-of-combat set of options to turn lead into gold, or sweat into acid, or whatever.
With these options not every alchemist is a bomb-throwing Mr.Hyde wannabe, allowing the class to be much more flexible and much less predictable).

*Barbarian: The Mighty Godling (from The Genius Guide to the Godling). Like the barbarian, the mighty godling does well in a ‘hit-it-until-it-stops’ moving capacity, and has a set of expansion options (godling stuff rather than rage) allowing for expansion beyond thews and axe-swinging.

*Bard: If what you want from a bard is a spellcaster with a different flavor I suggest the Mosaic Mage (from The Genius Guide to the Mosaic Mage), Ryan Costello, Jr.’s awesome take on a caster that ties magic abilities thematically to one (or two) colors.

*Cavalier: I’ll go with the War Master (from The Genius Guide to the War Master), as a full-attack-progression class with group-augmentation abilities). It has group tactics powers, ties to the upper class, and fair fighting capacity on its own.
Also, the talented cavalier (Genius Guide to the Talented Cavalier), which (along with Genius Guide to More Cavalier Talents) can be used to create everything from knights to samurai to sheriffs to naval officers.

*Cleric: Though the end results *can* be very different, I’d recommend either the adept or eldritch godling (from The Genius Guide to Mythic Godlings). You’d have to pick the right spell lists to really fill the same niche, but the spellcaster-with-divine ties comes through nicely.

*Druid: Oddly, the Death Mage from The Genius Guide to the Death Mage. The death mage is to wizards as the druid is to clerics -- a similarly-built spellcaster with a strong thematic link to one concept. It won’t work as well if you want your druid-replacement to be a strong healer, but if you just want a spellcaster who is useful but doesn’t feel like a typical cleric or wizard, it fills the “other spellcaster” role well.

*Fighter: Armiger, from The Genius Guide to the Armiger. Oddly the armiger only has a 2/3 base attack progression, but its focus on defense (for itself AND for others, to encourage foes to attack the armiger first even if other PCs are doing more damage) does a good job for the “tank” role some players desire with fighters.
Also, the talented fighter (Genius Guide to the Talented Fighter), which can turn your fighter into any of a wide range of classic combatant-types.

*Gunslinger: The Fusilier, an alternate class or gunslinger presented in Ultimate Options: Grit and Gunslingers. It replaces Wisdom-based Grit with Charisma-based panache, and can use deeds with precision weapons (including rapiers), allowing it to be useful even in games with no firearms.

*Inquisitor: The Justicar, an alternate class of inquisitor presented in Advanced Options: Inquisitor’s Judgments. The Justicar is a full-attack-progression class with no spellcasting, but a much wider range of judgments available.

*Magus: The Archon, from The Genius Guide to the Archon. The archon has a full attack progression, and arcane spellcasting similar to the paladin and ranger’s divine spellcasting. If the magus is an even mix of fighter and wizard, the archon is more like a fighter with a dash of wizard for spice.

*Monk: The *clever* godling, from The Genius Guide to the Godling. Like a monk it’s a combatant, but has tricks up its sleeve and can be surprisingly self-sufficient.
Also, the talented monk (Genius Guide to the Talented Monk), which lets you built traditional students of eastern fighting philosophies, or more rough-and-tumble martial arts of any alignment, or even highly trained masters of the samurai fighting styles (with or without weapons, with or without armor, and so on)

*Paladin: The Templar, from The Genius Guide to the Templar. This class can be of any alignment and serves as the militant arm of a religion, rather than a beacon of justice and order, but a LG templar is going to act a lot like a paladin. Full attack progression, no spells, but prayers and granted powers in keeping with their religious background.

*Oracle: The Magister, from The Genius Guide to the Magister. A spontaneous class with some neat abilities, the magister’s main claim to fame is it can pick spells from multiple class lists (subject to some well-proven restrictions to maintain balance). In fact, almost any spellcasting class *can* be swapped out for a magister, but I think it’s most likely to scratch the same itch as the oracle for PCs.

*Ranger: The Vanguard, from The Genius Guide to the Vanguard by Marc Radle. It’s a hybrid fighting/casting class with moderate attack and 6 levels of spells, but it does very well as an in-the-door-first character, and compliments other classes well in much the same way the ranger does.
But also, the Spell-Less Ranger, ALSO by Marc Radle. It’s not a SGG book, but it does a GREAT job of turning the ranger into a class that depends on knacks and talents over spells, and I am a big fan. I even wrote #1 With a Bullet Point: 6 Spell-Less Ranger Feats to support it!

*Rogue: The Shadow Assassin, from The Genius Guide to the Shadow Assassin. A class with specialty darkness powers and a lot of stealth, that can do many of the same jobs a rogue does, even though it has an almost totally different set of abilities.
Also, the talented rogue (Genius Guide to the Talented Rogue), which lets you build everything from cold-blooded killers to criminal thugs, confidence men, and bounty hunters.

*Sorcerer: I’m not sure anything can replace a sorcerer but more sorcerers. Instead I am again going to suggest just changing how your sorcerers play without getting rid of the class. Use the Endowments from Sorcerer’s Options: Beyond Bloodlines. These are like the sorcerer version of wizards’ discoveries, but focus on the idea that magic is *innate* to sorcerers, making them even more different from preparation spellcasters.

*Summoner: If you like the link to another creature that is a big part of your class power, and some spellcasting, AND you happen to like dragons, you might like the more martial version of that connection from The Genius Guide to the Dragonrider. (My FIRST Pathfinder-compatible product!)

*Witch: The hellion, from The Genius Guide to the Hellion. The hellion is to the witch as the magus is to the wizard, along with having options different from either of its predecessors. I am very happy with this design, and it seems to be a fan favorite in play.

*Wizard: The Time Thief, from The Genius Guide to the Time Thief. Which is NOTHING like a wizard, but I haven’t mentioned yet, and it’s my favorite of all the classes I have designed as a 3pp Pathfinder writer. :) If you want a little more magic with your time control, try The Time Warden, instead.

So, the Talented Fighter and Talented Rogue are out, and both have expansionbooks. Talented Monk is in layout, and it's expansion rules are in playtesting.
I'm thinking of Talented Barbarian, or Talented Cavalier, next. Thoughts?

When talking about new templates there are two crucial questions: "Why do we want these?," and "What are they?"

On the why:

The Genius Guide to Gruesome Undead Templates wrote:

The idea behind gruesome undead is to “spice up” these monsters, to make them more interesting (and perhaps more frightening) for players and GMs. Rather than face another horde of zombies, the players find themselves facing rotting corpses with elongated, twisted limbs, or gibbering wrecks of things once humanoid that whisper maddening secrets from beyond the grave. Creatures that have more wrong with them than “just” being walking corpses, gruesome undead have uncanny appearances, smells and sounds that makes them more frightening to even veteran characters than a typical monster of the type (generally represented by each gruesome undead’s shock value – see below), while the fact that they are difficult to identify makes them more of a mystery for players.

On the what:

CarrierThe slender figure constantly shivers, as though lightly shaken by unseen hands. Boils, sores, and crusty, scabrous growths are scattered across its body, some visibly oozing a thick, yellow fluid. Even from a distance the smell of soured sweat and rotting blood fill the air, and some foul miasma grows in strength each time the yellowish sludge spurts from a sore.
Carrier undead are normally a result of someone dying of disease under the same conditions that might normally create an undead – lack of proper burial, evil magic, negative material energy, or strong negative emotions. Less commonly, carrier undead may be the result of an undead disease – either from necromantic magics or from infection from a ghoul bite or similar undead injury. They are most common in areas struck by pandemic, sometimes clawing their way out of piles of unburied, festering corpses left to rot as communities flee from plague-ridden areas.

FlayedThe creature's body is shiny and wet, its muscles and teeth clearly visible. A constantly sheen of blood oozes from it, showing that though standing and active, the figure is lacking any skin. Its movements are accompanied by the sound of sticky leathers being pulled apart, and the strong smell of blood fills the area.
A flayed undead has no skin (or in the case of ghosts and similar incorporeal undead that lack any organs, have a form that looks like it has no skin). Most often flayed undead are those who were tortured to death and lost their skin as part of that torture, or those who carry heavy self-hate and guilt and as a result manifest as bodies lacking the natural protection of their outer hide. Flayed undead can also be created intentionally by necromancers who like to use the skin of undead to create books of necromantic knowledge.

FungalThe pulsing mounds and growths on the creature make it difficult to determine its true shape or nature. Mushrooms, strange grey ridges, and waving patches of undulating hair cover its exterior, writhing with no discernible pattern and making soft, wet sounds.
Fungal undead often come into existence when undead dwell in damp, underground places. Leaky tombs and crypts, sunken ships, swampland battlefields, and towns destroyed by flooding are all likely locations for these gruesome creatures. The fungi attached to such animate corpses are themselves undead, making them immune to effects that target or protect from plants. Occasionally an undead fungus spreads from its point of origin, infecting undead and spreading through colonies of necromantic creatures to create a horde of fungal undead.

GapingAs the creature’s jaw lowers a creaking sound loudly accompanies the stench of death. Its mouth continues to expand well past what seems reasonable, its teeth gleaming as its maw grows to be larger than its entire head originally appeared to be.
Gaping creatures can unhinge their jaw and expand the size of their mouth to be preposterously big. Humanoid gaping undead can have a toothy mouth grow up to two feet in diameter, though the shape varies from undead to undead. As an alternative to opening their mouth to great scope, such undead may instead split their face to expose a “second” mouth, such as a gaping undead’s entire face splitting vertically to create a head-sized mouth filled with rows of sharp teeth.
Gaping undead may be the remains of creatures that died screaming in agony, or of those with strong ties to singing, speaking, or sound, or may just be a gruesome mutation of the normal undead creation process. They could easily be found in places where innocents died in large numbers while terrified and hurt (such as an abandoned bardic academy that is also the site of a slaughter), or places where negative energy is strong and effects the development of undead created there (such as the demiplane of a necromancer who foolishly drew on the negative plane).

RackedThe manlike shape seems too long, too lean, with one shoulder much higher than the other and an oddly hunched posture. Its arms twitch and dangle, and its legs tremor as though it can barely stand. As one long, twisted arm reaches forward there are loud snaps and cracks as its shoulder visible pops in and out of the socket.
Racked undead were subject to merciless stretching prior to death. Most often they are the result of being put on the rack as torture and pulled at wrists and ankles, but a racked undead might have died by being drawn by horses, caught in a clockwork device that tore it slowly apart, or been ripped limb from limb by a carnivorous ape. They are likely to be encountered in places close to the scene of their torture and death – most often mad alchemist’s labs, haunted dungeons, or dangerous wildernesses.
A racked undead has long, twisted limbs of uneven lengths. They pop in and out of joint, twitch spastically, and periodically show signs of still being pulled and twisted by some unseen force.

WhisperingThe sound of dozens of voices whispering in endless, overlapping, urgent hushed tones fills the area and drives out all other sounds. Horrid secrets are hinted at and vile names spoken, as though a choir of children was quietly reciting a book from hell.
Whispering undead are normally either undead spellcasters who have never given up seeking knowledge, or the remains of someone killed after betraying a secret it swore to keep to itself. They most often haunt old libraries and places where divination and sonic magic was stored or researched.

The Genius Guide to Name Traits adds a new category of trait -- name traits -- based on the idea that what your character is called can impact who your character is. There's a brief primer to make sure you can use name traits even if you don't normally use other traits, and then rules for determining what minor bonuses characters' names can give them.

There's a name generator with 38 name prefixes, 20 male name suffixes and 2 female suffixes, with each name segment granting its own 1/2 trait benefit (allowing for 1,520 unique name traits), and 12 thematic name traits (such as "name of Strength") to allow traits to be assigned to existing names with iconic fantasy meanings.

The Geniuses would also like to thank world renowned illustrator Wayne Reynolds, who kindly donated the sketch used for the cover of this product. The sketch, and his kind gesture to make it available, not only inspired the Order of Merciful Cousins, but this entire charity pdf.

The Order of Merciful Cousins, who also go by the name the Masons of Recovery, are an order available for cavaliers (a class presented in the Pathfinder® Roleplaying Game: Advanced Player’s Guide™). Dedicated to assisting those who have suffered tragedy or disaster, the merciful cousins wander the world trying to help those communities in greatest need. In addition to defending those too weak or shocked to defend themselves, the merciful cousins spend time healing the injured, rebuilding shattered homes, and helping communities plan to better weather future hardships.

The merciful cousins see themselves as kin to all the distressed and dispossessed, and believe communities that have suffered significant disasters must be protected and helped to rebuild. Of course, the cavaliers also believe in preventing such disasters before they strike and are happy to hunt down bands of pirates or brigands, secure destructive artifacts before they fall into the wrong hands, and help protect caravans and keeps where danger looms, but has not yet befallen. But if a community or settlement has already been ravaged, that is the where cavalier’s first duty lies.

The symbol of the order is two four-pointed stars overlapping one another. These represent the four pillars of their duty – defense, preparation, recovery, and rebuilding – both in the present (the front star) and in the past (the star in the background). Whenever an order of the merciful cousins cavalier helps a community recover from disaster, she adds another smaller star to her personal heraldry, much as soldiers mark their successes in major battles. To the cavalier, those she has helped are more important than those she has defeated.

Christina Stiles, whose name most of you should recognize, is running an IndieGoGo fundraiser to help cover the costs of Con travel from herself, myself, and Amanda Hamon. To incentivize folks there are various rewards for pitching in, ranging from a good-sized pdf bundle ( the bundle currently includes pdfs from Misfit Studios, Super Genius Games, LPJ Design, Fat Dragon Games, Fat Goblin Games, Black & Green Games, and Total Party Kill Games) to advertising to one-on-one time to talk to us about whatever you want.

Having freelancers who make the things you enjoy travel to events like this is good for everyone, as it helps build relationships that open doors to otherwise impossible programs (I suspect most of the SGG/Rite Publishing collaboration can be traced back to meeting at Gen Con), and helps keep the minds of your favorite creators fresh and inspired.

So if you feel like getting some cool stuff and helping offset the costs of independent creatives building a stronger industry, check it out!

So, The Genius Guide to the Talented Rogue isn't out yet (soon, I hope). But I shared this teaser section on Facebook, and some folks who don't like/don't use Facebook found out about that and asked if I'd share it here, sooo.....

Save Vs. Wall of Text
Because it includes well more than 175 edges, talents, advanced talents, and grand talents, getting through the talented rogue class write-up can be daunting. Once a character has been written up its easy to look any selected edges and talents if they are presented alphabetically, but when thinking about what talent to take next the abilities can form a nigh-impenetrable “wall of text.”
To help with this issue we’ve categorized all the edges and talents into the following themes and sub themes, based on common rogue character concepts: Defensive (general and saving throws), Flexible Customization, Magic/Mysticism, Movement, Offensive (general and sneak attack), Traps, and Skills (with several sub-categories for specific skills). Each talent gives its name and notes if it is an edge, advanced talent, or grand talent. This allows a GM or player looking for a new option to see which edges and talents are most likely to match his desired character concept without reading through the entire list of options.

The Genius Guide to Relics of the Godlings II is now available at Paizo! This pdf presents six magic items that grow in power as characters advance from 1st-20th level (the magic rings draupnir and lokanaut; the suits of light, medium and heavy armor drakkenhael, myrmix, and kavacha; and the magic shield svalinn) and five templates for GMs to create their own godling relics that grow from 1st to 20th level (for rings, shields, and light, medium, and heavy armor).

This book uses the same system as Relics of the Godlings, but all the items and templates in this follow-up are brand new! Between the two books you gave 14 items that grow in power from 1st to 20th level, and seven templates covering rings, staves, weapons, shields, and light, medium, and heavy armor!

The spell point system introduce in Houserule Handbooks: Spell Points was designed to be flexible, simple set of rules for replacing the normal spell slot/spell preparation system used by spellcasters in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook with a different resource management system – spell points. Though both successful in this goal and quite popular, the book did little to show how the spell point mechanic can be used to create new options and mechanics beyond just tracking spellcaster resources. While the system has received a small expansion in Houserule Footnotes: Spell Point Feats, the new Houserule Handbooks: Spell Point Expansion is the first effort to grow the spell point system to be a more comprehensive option able to cover all spellcasting related classes, archetypes, and combinations, as well as provide new ways that spell points can be used to add more flavorful options to a campaign. As an expansion of the original product, this book requires the use of Houserule Handbooks: Spell Points.

We hope you enjoy reading these little twists to the normal rules, which we offer free of charge as our holiday gift to our fans, patrons, and fellow gamers.

The houserules included are:
Background Skill Points: Characters begin play with 2 additional skill points which can only be spent on Craft, Knowledge, Perform, and Profession skills.
Equipment: Rules for Alternate Special Materials and Object Criticals.
Spotlight Time: Characters that have the entire group's attention at the moment get bonuses to all of their actions.

SUPER GENIUS GAMES ACQUIRES 'WARLORDS OF THE APOCALYPSE' FROM ADAMANT ENTERTAINMENT

December18, 2012

Super Genius Games, critically-acclaimed publisher of supplemental material for the Pathfinder, Savage Worlds and Call of Cthulhu role-playing game systems, has acquired the rights to the Pathfinder-compatible WARLORDS OF THE APOCALYPSE game setting from original developer Adamant Entertainment.

WARLORDS OF THE APOCALYPSE, first announced in 2010, brings the gonzo, over-the-top world of classic post-apocalypse science-fantasy to the Pathfinder rules system, featuring mutants, psychic powers, radioactive beasts and warriors of the wasteland.

"The game ran into some major snags during development," says Gareth-Michael Skarka, director of Adamant Entertainment. "We soldiered on, trying to pull it together, but it became apparent that the property would be far better in the hands of Pathfinder experts like the crew at Super Genius. We're very glad they expressed an interest and that we were able to come to an agreement that honors not only WOTA, but the existing pre-order customers, who were our primary concern."

Customers who had pre-ordered WARLORDS OF THE APOCALYPSE will see those orders fulfilled by Super Genius Games. "We are well aware folks have already been waiting a very long time, and shown amazing patience," says Owen K.C. Stephens, the Line Developer for WOTA at Super Genius. "We'll be outlining our full plans soon, and setting up a forum for open discussions. We know we'll eventually put the book in the hands of the pre--order customers, and we're working out how the general public can get involved. Since we want the biggest, best release possible for Warlords of the Apocalypse, we're even considering a Kickstarter campaign."

Stephens and Skarka both expressed enthusiasm for the project and it's future in the hands of Super Genius Games. "It's such a fun genre, and Super Genius has strongly established themselves as seriously excellent developers," said Skarka. "I look forward to seeing WARLORDS OF THE APOCALYPSE in its final form. I'm sure it will be brilliant!"

Super Genius Games was founded in fall 2007 by game industry veterans Hyrum Savage and Stan!, SGG is dedicated to publishing quality PDF and print products for a wide range of games and game systems. For more information contact owen@supergeniusgames.com.

Adamant Entertainment is a digital media company founded in 2003 by Gareth-Michael Skarka. For more information, visit http://www.adamantentertainment.com.

Includes new motes of time and aevum powers, options and archetypes for the time thief and time warden (including the time reaver), and chronal options for other base classes, and new temporal hazard, and rules for creating temporal monsters. With (at least some) never-before-seen art of our two chronothurge characters!

It’s something of a tradition that when Super Genius has a sale (like our 52% Off “52 in 52 Sale”), I go a bit overboard. The other geniuses are often pretty busy around November, and I’ve used that to grab the steering wheel and take over. Generally I set up a thread offering fans a chance to talk to use about specific ideas, and rewarded their feedback with free PDFs.

And in some cases, it’s just been a chance for patrons to let me know they still want to see the Genius Guide to Valkyries and Viragos (still due before the end of this year – fingers crossed).

And yes, I’m doing it again this year. I should have run this by my fellow Geniuses. I even had a chance to – they aren’t as unavailable as in previous Novembers. To be honest, I just forgot.

But I’m going rogue anyway.

I don’t have a specific idea I want feedback on this year. Instead, I really want to hear what people would most like to see us do in the next 12-18 months. Are you still excited by the idea of print SGG books? Do you want to see the nearly-complete set of Anachronistic Adventurers classes get expanded, maybe even turned into a full set of rules for a Modern Pathfinder RPG? Are you done with seeing a new SGG pdf every week? Did you like the slew of Bullet Points better? Worse? Did you even notice? Do you want them compiled?

So, yeah. Let me know. And in return, each person who posts an opinion here may also send me an email to owen@supergeniusgames.com, asking for any pdf we released before this month as a free reward. Given the confusion of past offers, I’m requiring everyone send me an email (rather than private message or just mentioning it in this thread), and tell me what your forum name is when you do it. If you take those steps, I’ll make sure you get the pdf.

Super Genius has always exceeded my expectations, and I believe a lot of that is because we’ve tried very hard to give our patrons what they want. Given that I have no idea what people will suggest I can’t say if we’ll tackle any of the ideas presented here – but we’ll read and seriously consider all of them!

For the third year straight, Super Genius Games has released at least one product every week, for 52 weeks in a row. That's only been possible because our patrons continue to show amazing support for our releases and give us great feedback on what they'd like to see more of.

To celebrate this achievement, and help fans fill in any gaps they may have in their Super Genius collections, we are once again having a month-long "52% Off to celebrate 52 Products in 52 Weeks" sale. Everything in our PDF catalog is 52% off from now until December 1st!

Thanks for supporting for another year, and we hope you all enjoy what we have planned for the next 52 weeks!

Welcome to Houserule Handbooks: Spell Points, the first in a series of products presenting some of the houserules used at Super Genius Games. Each of these products is designed to introduce a carefully balanced, developed, and playtested version of a popular houserule for campaigns using the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook. Houserule Handbooks aren’t for everyone, and should always be considered “alternate” rules, only for use if a GM and players all want to add something different to a campaign. In the case of Spell Points, the alternate rule is a system to allow all spellcasters to fuel their spells with a pool of spell points, not requiring any spell preparation, and allowing a spellcaster additional flexibility by using a lot of spell points to fuel a few high-level spells, or gain extended staying power by restricting casting to a larger number of lower-level spells. Further, the system is designed only for actual spellcasters, ignoring the spell-like abilities of monks and the infusions of alchemists as dissimilar enough to not need the same kind of spell point houserules. These considerations drive all the design decisions that follow, so if the system as described doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, this product likely isn’t for you.

Spell Points
Spell points are a resource used to cast spells, as opposed to using the normal rules of spell slots and spell preparation. Rules are given for spell points in general, and then specific rules for each spellcasting class. Every spellcasting class can use spell points. A campaign may only use spell-point characters (at the GM’s discretion), or both spell-point and normal versions of classes may exist (in which case the decision to be a spell-point spellcaster must be selected when the first level in a spellcasting class is taken). A character cannot take levels in both a spellpoint and non-spell-point version of the same class (treat using spell points as a kind of archetype for spellcasting classes).

Anachronistic Adventurers: The Tough is available now on Paizo, and has a 4.5/5 review! Quote: "Really, if you ever wanted to bring bikers, villain-pounding roughnecks, and monster-fighting pro wrestlers into a Pathfinder game then this s indeed the PDF for you. "

The tough is a rough-and-tumble free spirit, who possesses what might charitably be called a recalcitrant streak, or uncharitably be called "rage issues." A tough does not like to be told what to do, where to go, or how to act, and he absolutely does not accept the idea that he is going to lose (even when he has clearly, logically already lost). When things are calm, a tough can be hard to identify from everyone else, acting the role of anything from anarchist bomb-thrower to peaceful member of the gardening club. But when things get grim, when blood starts to flow and the tough has been smashed and battered, the tough reacts differently than anyone else. The more a tough is bloodied and hurt, the angrier and more determined to survive, to win, the tough becomes.

Toughs often have trouble with authority, and may take the easy route and live lives as bikers, bouncers, rum runners, thugs, and crooks. But just as many fight against their riotous, dangerous nature and seek to channel their anger and strength. Toughs can be found as drill sergeants, beat cops, bounty hunters, and local heroes. But no matter how carefully trained their fighting skills are, or neatly ordered their plans are, a tough is simply different once the fit hits the shan. A tough soldier may be respected, but he's also the guy quietly described as a crazy SOB. A tough firefighter is respected and honored, but people get nervous when they are assigned to his squad. A tough seems to be able to survive things that should leave him a smoldering corpse, and displays a refusal to quit that sometimes gets his more fragile allies killed.

A tough is a heck of an ally... if you can survive the friendship.

Included in this 24 page book are rules for the new "Battered" condition, as well as rules and guidelines for when characters from modern settings bring vehicles from those settings with them into fantasy campaigns with lower-progress levels. Based on the rules found in Ultimate Combat, these character-scale rules are designed to handle heroes on foot running from a sedan of tommy-gun-toting mobsters, or a single character on a motorcycle driving in and out of a riot, to a gang of smugglers ambushing a steam punt boat with an archeological expedition on board. In all these cases, the main action is focusing on character vs. character conflict, and a small number of vehicles interacting with those characters as outliers to the general activity. Also included are rules for when the main focus of the encounter is straight up vehicle on vehicle action! Finally we touch on the idea of Progress Levels (PL), a simple way to determine the general technological advancement of a campaign (and outlined in more detail in Anachronistic Adventurers: The Enforcer).

#1 with a Bullet Point: 7 Shield Spell Feats is available now! This product presents seven feats that allow spellcasters using the classic and venerable shield spell to have as many options as characters who use material shields. This is the latest in a series of products to celebrate the "Summer of Bullets" event!

The feats included are:
Covering Shield: You can extend your shield to protect an ally.
Elemental Shield: You can attune your shield spell to deflect elemental damage.
Force Shielding: You can layer the force effect of a shield spell onto an ally’s shield.
Reactive Shield: Your shield spell moves itself to block the efforts of foes to put you at a disadvantage.
Shield Spell Bash: You can hit things with your shield spell.
Shield Properties: You can add the magic properties of magic shields to your shield spell.
Tower Shield Spell: You can make your shield spell much larger, at the cost of additional hindrance.

#1 With a Bullet Point: 8 Ligtning Bolt Feats includes eight feats that allow spellcasters using the classic and venerable lightning bolt spell (and other spells with similar traits) to have as many options as characters who use feats to focus on skills or combat maneuvers. This is the latest in a series of extra-large "Full Clip" Bullet Points products to celebrate the "Summer of Bullets" event!

The feats included are:
Cloud-to-Cloud: Your lighting spells can light up a magic cloud of your creation.
Forked Bolt: You can make your line spells shorter and wider by forking their effects.
Magnetize: Metal you strike with electrical effects becomes magnetized for a short period.
Multiple Bolts: Your line spells can go in multiple directions.
Mystic Arcs: Your line spells can take the bent, winding path of a lightning bolt.
Re-Strike: Like the lightning bolts of nature, your bolts often travel the same path multiple times..
Storm Rider: Lighting is just another path for you.
Thundercrack: When you create lightning, you can also create thunder.

#1 With a Bullet Point: 6 Nonmagic Special Qualities for Weapons introduces six new nonmagic weapon special qualities (similar to brace, reach, and trip) to vastly expand the options a campaign has for unusual or bizarre tools for killing things. This is the latest in a series of products to celebrate the "Summer of Bullets" event!

The qualities included are:
Back Spike: A back spike weapon is a weapon that has a pick-like spike as a counterweight, allowing you to do its normal damage type or piercing damage.
Basket Hilt: A basket hilt weapon increases your CMD against disarm and sunder maneuvers made against the weapon, and gives you a shield bonus to AC when taking the full defense action.
Flamberge: A flamberge weapon has an undulating, wavy pattern along its length, allowing you to attack your foes when using the parry class feature.
Parry Hooks: Parry hooks (also called parierhaken) are forward-curing spikes or flukes mounted just in front of the ricasso (unsharpened section of a blade) of a twohanded sword or bastard sword, or partway along a 2-handed hafted weapon (such as a longspear).
Ringed: A ringed weapon has a number of metal rings added along its length, giving it additional heft and momentum when swung. Increasing damage dealt at the expense of accuracy.
Springy: A springy weapon is more flexible than normal, able to bend by a considerable angle and still spring back to its original shape. A springy weapon is harder to pin down with combat maneuvers.

What dungeon, you ask? Dragon's Delve — a massive 27-level mega-dungeon more than half-a-million words long! It's an adventure with 661 encounters, none of which are empty rooms or featureless corridors, arranged over nearly 30 maps! A whole campaign worth of material, capable of taking characters from 1st to 20th level, that begins with a bell on a string set by goblins and ends with a battle against a great wyrm red dragon demigod where the fate of a god hangs in the balance!

And while Dragon's Delve may not be the biggest dungeon in the world, it has the distinction of having been conceived by Monte Cook (Ptolus, 3E Dungeon Master Guide) as the initial offering for Dungeonaday.com — a subscription website that created a classic "dungeon delve" style dungeon by releasing a single hyperlinked, cross-referenced encounter every weekday (each of which now has years of forum posts giving ideas on how to tweak, improve, or survive its challenges).

Over the site's original lifecycle Monte designed 14 levels of Dragon's Delve, and then turned to Super Genius Games to finish the massive adventure location with 13 more levels! Originally begun as a d20 OGL fantasy adventure, Super Genius Games supported the dungeon's original rules system but also added rules for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game to their expansions. The final battle with the Dragon Prince went live in July of 2011, and Dragon's Delve came to an end. Shortly afterwards it was decided to close the site for new patrons—existing memberships were honored, and four more (shorter) adventures released, but the encounter-a-day format ended.

Since that time, numerous additional customers have expressed an interest in gaining access to the five dungeons of Dungeonaday.com, but that posed a problem. The words and maps of these adventures could be saved and be sold in the form of PDFs, but what really made Dungeonaday.com special—the vast network of hyperlinks between the encounters that could continually be modified and added to—could not be maintained without the proprietary content management software that was used in the site's creation.

So, now we have an opportunity to enter a new stage of Dungeonaday.com. We want to make the site available again, and allow new customers to experience Dragon's Delve, and it's companion adventures (Necropolis of Pergia, Tomb-World of Alak-Amur, Night of the Starbird, and Temple of the Black Goat).

We have lots of additional things we'd like to do with the dungeon. We have a 3-D walkthrough video already finished for one level, and would love to produce more for the crucial levels of the Dragon's Delve. The Pathfinder game rules for some levels are not integrated into the early encounters, and many new Pathfinder supplements have been produced in the meanwhile, so we'd love to give the entire dungeon a top-down overhaul to fully take advantage of the rules, classes, monsters, and other awesome content that Paizo Publishing has released.

But those are things we can talk about a bit later—first what we want to do is offer patrons access to five complete online dungeons in all their hyperlinked glory, beginning the week after our Kickstarter campaign funds. Even if we never get the chance to do all the other amazing things we'd love to try (which we will add in the form of stretch goals once our basic target is met), this funding campaign aims to make some of the coolest dungeons ever written available to a broader audience.

#1 With a Bullet Point: 7 War Master Feats introduces seven feats designed to augment the options and utility of war masters (from The Genius Guide to the War Master) or, if war masters aren't being used in a campaign, that can be taken by classes that receive bonus combat or teamwork feats as class features (using their class levels as war master levels for prerequisites) or characters that have the Leadership feat (using their character level as war master levels for prerequisites). This is the latest in a series of products to celebrate the "Summer of Bullets" event!

The feats included are:
Advance In Ranks: You can direct allies to move together, guarding and watching over each other.
Formation Fighting: You can direct a tight formation of melee combatants to fight together, aiding them all.
Mixed Order: You can direct allies around you to fight in a specific style, emulating your weapons.
Overwatch: You can watch out for moments when your allies are distracted and warn them about potential attacks.
Set To Receive: You can prepare troops to use reach weapons to great effect against advancing foes.
Tactical Commands: Your deep understanding of the flow of combat allows to you give allies new combat options.
War Signals: You have mastered a set of signs and code words to give orders quickly and easily.

I'm working on an official Paizo project, and want to round up all the animal tricks from official products. Obviously there are the animal tricks from the Handle Animal skill, but are there any from other sources?

#1 With a Bullet Point: 7 Sinful Feats of Gluttonypresents seven new feats based on the classic sin of gluttony, to make villains more interesting and let PCs express their own sins with panache. This is the latest in a series of products to celebrate the "Summer of Bullets" event, and the first of a planned line of "sinful feat" products!

The feats included are:
Big Mouth (Sinful): You've shoved so much into your mouth, it has monstrously strengthened your jaws and teeth.
Feast Healing (Sinful): You can restore your body through the consumption of food.
Gluttonous (Sinful): You have turned stuffing yourself into an art form… and a power.
Gnaw (Sinful): You can work on something too tough for the teeth of others.
Stomach Reserve (Sinful): Your stomach is normally so full, and your control over it so great, you can keep an imbibed potion inert until you wish to use it.
Slurp It Down (Sinful): You can guzzle potables with amazing speed and voraciousness.
Suck It Up (Sinful): You can force a target to expend more eldritch energy to fill your voracious gluttony when you are affected by a magic ability.

#1 With a Bullet Point: 9 Witch Hunter Feats presents nine feats designed to augment the options and utility of witch hunters (from The Genius Guide to the Witch Hunter) or, if witch hunters aren't being used in a campaign, that can be taken by fighters with the Disruptive feat (replacing witch hunter level prerequisites with fighter level prerequisites, and adding Disruptive as a prerequisite to all feats). This is the latest in a series of products to celebrate the "Summer of Bullets" event!

The feats included are:
Bane of the Supernatural (Combat): You have learned to recognize when a creature is going to call on eldritch powers, and to take advantage of that moment.
Brand of Binding: You have learned how to brand foes with runes and sigils that neutralize their eldritch powers.
Branding Critical (Critical): You can carve the sigils of a binding brand into a foe with a perfect weapon strike.
Hex Resistance: You have hardened your body and mind against the power of hexes.
I Know Your Tricks: You use your experience with preternatural foes to gird yourself against their magics.
Lightbearer: You can summon light into the darkness.
Preempt the Supernatural (Combat): You can strike a creature so suddenly and forcefully, it loses its control of its eldritch powers.
Shrewd Studies: You have a knack for learning exactly the lore you need.
SoulGuard: You can defend an ally's soul and mind, as well as body.